Friday, April 2^nd, 2021
A weekday e-mailer from
Matt Matthews
 
To Members and Friends of 
First Presbyterian Church
Champaign, Illinois
 
Friends,
 
It’s Holy Week. 
 
Sunday is Easter. Our in-person service is fully booked. Our on-line service has plenty of space; join us there at 9:00 for our live premier, at FirstPres.Live.
 
Last night was Maundy Thursday. Footwashing, Last Supper, into the sleepy night, full from dinner and warm with fellowship, singing a hymn.
 
Today is Good Friday. Our service is tonight at 7:00 at FirstPres.Live. We are joining in a joint service with our siblings in Christ across State Street at First United Methodist Church. Our choirs will sing. It is “Good” Friday only because of Easter, but on Friday, it doesn’t feel very good: Betrayal with a kiss, arrest, trial, mocking, crucifixion, anguish, sorrow. O Sacred Head Now Wounded, with grief and shame weighed down, now scornfully surrounded with thorns thine only crown.
 
O Judas, what were you thinking?
 
Judas
By Vassar Miller
 
Always I lay upon the brink of love,
Impotent, waiting till the waters stirred,
And no one healed my weakness with a word;
For no words healed me without words to prove
My heart, which when the kiss of Mary wove
His shroud, my tongueless anguish spurred
To cool dissent, and which, each time I heard
John whisper to Him, moaned but could not move.
 
While Peter deeply drowsed within love’s deep
I cramped upon its margin, glad to share
The sop Christ gave me, yet its bitter bite
Dried up my ducts. Praise Peter, who could
Weep his sin away, but never see me where
I hang, huge teardrop on the cheek of night.
 
* * *
 
O Mary, Don’t You Weep No More.
 
* * *
 
I’ll see you tonight at our “Good Friday” Service at 7 p.m.
 
I’ll see you on Easter for a celebration of resurrection hope.
 
PEACE,
 
Matt Matthews
864.386.9138
 
 
 * * *
Lenten Daily Devotion from “The Presbyterian Outlook”
Good Friday, APRIL 2, 2021
MARK 15:33-47
In Mark’s account of the crucifixion, Jesus is radically alone as he is publicly humiliated on the cross, subject to mockery. Soldiers ridicule him; passersby deride him, shaking their heads at him; religious authorities mock him; and even those crucified with him taunt him. Jesus’ final words from the cross are of abandonment even by God. Roman crucifixions were staged in public places, often along roads where all who passed could witness their horror, as a deterrent to bucking civil authorities. On Good Friday, we are drawn into this public place.
Practice: Prayerfully read this story, imagining that you are present in this public place. Note the senses and emotions the scene evokes as you meditate upon it.
Journal: Painful though it may be, note in your journal what emerged as you prayed with this story.

Holy Saturday, APRIL 3, 2021
JOHN 20:19-28
Holy Saturday is an occasion on which to reflect on the wounds of Jesus — and on wounds that linger in our own lives. When the risen Lord appears to his disciples, he shows them his hands and his side; Thomas even insists that he must touch the mark of the wounds, and the risen Lord invites him to do so. As theologian Shelly Rambo notes in her book “Resurrecting Wounds,” Jesus directs the attention of his disciples toward the wounds, inviting us to do the same, with a “readiness to hold pain and to stay with difficult truths.”
Practice: Prayerfully read this story with special attention to the wounds of Jesus. Reflect also on wounds that linger in your own life that mark you.
Journal: Note what emerges in your prayer with this story, and of movement toward God and away from God that you discerned.

Easter Sunday, APRIL 4, 2021
MATTHEW 28:1-10
Reflect on the women’s encounter first with the angel of the Lord and then with the Risen Christ. As you read the Scripture, think about how they experience these scenes with all of their physical senses. Imagine how they might have felt and contemplate their actions and responses.
Practice: What have you learned in these weeks of Lent? Are you “ready” for Easter — for meeting the Risen Christ yourself? Think about you how will live into the resurrection in a new way as you go forward into the Easter season.
Journal: Read over your journal entries from these Lenten weeks. What have you learned from thinking so often and deeply about “moving toward” and “moving away” from God? Is this just a pendulum, or does it bring a new awareness of your proximity to Christ? Note your observations and summarize what you have learned. List any practices you commit to continuing.

Christ is risen!
Christ is risen indeed!